On Her Birthday

On Katie's birthday we had a full morning hosting a 4-H meeting, working on flower arranging, and then having some time for the Food Challenge kids to work on their aprons. We decided to head to the park after lunch to have some cupcakes and blow bubbles with the friends who were still there. Of course I took way too many pictures, but how could I not?!?

Katie with her flowers made by MC and her friend A, cupcakes made and decorated by the girls, and her special birthday balloons!

Singing Happy Birthday

Present from her family

Ballet shoes and a leotard with tutu!

She wants to put them on right now!

Bubbles!

NeNe and PaPa arrive with a fun present!

A puppy dog!

Back home to try on her ballet outfit!

She's not sure about the ballet shoes, so she takes them off and dances barefoot.

But she loves the tutu!

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Ballerina Baby!

Sweets Birthday Party, Ellie is 10!

Ellie wanted to have a birthday party with a few friends that would be all focused on SWEETS! So a few weekends ago (about a month after her real birthday) she invited 4 girls over for Ellie's Sweet Shoppe 10th Birthday! We went to Party City and Michael's a few days before for some decorations and paper goods, and my mom made the favors and labels to match the decor! It turned out cute, simple, and fun! The girls planned almost everything themselves, and did the decorating too, since I was still not feeling so great with my shingles.

We started at lunchtime with some popcorn, fruit salad, and our favorite Raising Cane's chicken fingers! Oh and they made punch with lime sherbet and Sprite, and each girl got a mason jar with straw that they could take home.

The first game was Pin the Cherry on the Ice Cream Sundae. The girls painted this themselves and we bought red pompoms for the cherries.

Then there was a cake-drawing contest. The girls each drew their own cake creation with markers.

Our little party animal!

My mom was the judge!

The girls with their creations

After the judging we read this one which was precious.

"10 years you have been LOVED!" 

It made me cry.

Before the party we baked some large-sized cupcakes (I think it was a "king-sized muffin pan" I found at Michael's), and then the girls had a timed contest to decorate their cakes with candies, icing, and fondant. 

The birthday girl won this contest!

 Finally it was time to sing and eat the cupcakes and some ice cream!

And then the girls got to visit and play for awhile, while I went to put a little somebody down for a nap. You can tell she was a little tired at this point! (One of the boys was at a party and the other with Daddy at the neighbors' house.) The parents all came in to visit for a bit, and it was nice to socialize after a quiet party!

Usually we have such big parties that things can become overwhelming. In this case, it was hard to limit it to just a few girls, but in the end it was just what we needed to do during a very busy season for our family. It was a fun celebration of Ellie and all the bright, colorful, and sweet things she is! Happy 10th Birthday to our Ellie-girl!